Niall Williams, a Dublin born writer, has lived in Kiltumper, Co Clare in the west of Ireland for the past 30 years. He is the author of eight novels, three stage plays, four non-fiction works and several screenplays, and a novella: The Unrequited.

~ News ~

Niall will be appearing at the Ennis Book Club Festival, March 6-8, 2015

HISTORY OF THE RAIN is Niall's first novel in five years. It was published by Bloomsbury in the UK and Commonwealth and Ireland (April 2014) and in North America (May 2014) and was long-listed for The Man Booker Prize 2014. It comes out in paperback in March 2015 in the UK/Ireland and November 2015 in the USA.

(Italian, Spanish, Brazilian, German and Turkish rights have also been sold (publication dates yet to be announced.)) Here are just a few of the reviews...

"Intense and poetic, it [Four Letters of Love] was an international bestseller and set the tone for his subsequent novels — fatalistic, lyrical works firmly embedded in the landscape of rural Ireland. Williams's latest, the Man-Booker-longlisted History of the Rain, is no exception. ...the story is pure eccentric entertainment." — Catherine Taylor, The Guardian

"...History of the Rain has the heft of a bigger book, that extra brainy oomph that flatters the juries of lit comps and nailed it a place on this year's Man Booker longlist. This is not boil-in-the-bag Irish stew, it is your rich, slow-simmered casserole of a novel, and Williams has the confidence to give his themes the time that they need to develop... Two recurring image patterns underlie the whole book, flowing and soaring. Water and air, united in and by the rain. The river, the ceaseless eddying course of life, swollen by each new rivulet of rain off the boggy acres of the Swains's riverside fields, is counterbalanced by the urge to soar — the pole-vaulting grandfather Abraham, the salmon leaping upstream, the leap of the poet's heart when the words start to flow. I could go on ... It's a satisfying entertainment for all." — Angus Clarke The Times (Saturday Review)

"Booker-longlisted for this deeply allusive, infectiously hopeful work, Dublin-born Niall Williams returns to Ireland, the setting of much of his earlier fiction, for a glorious celebration of its storytelling tradition. ... In a beautifully executed ending, Williams weaves together fertile metaphors ... to sweep the reader joyfully along. History of the Rain is a fresh and powerful reminder that: "We tell stories to heal the pain of living."" — Francesca Wade The Daily Telegraph

Niall's screen adaptation of FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE, an international best-seller which is being re-issued in January 2015 as a Picador Modern Classic by Picador, UK, is among the several screenplays Niall has completed. In partnership with WMS BROS PICTURES Niall has written several screenplays for feature films and television. Among them are: BOZ and THE SWEEP and BECOMING ZORBA, in addition to FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE. (For information on screenplays contact Niall's film agent, Cathy King at Independent Talent, London.)

Niall is delighted to announce that Christine's first novel, HER NAME IS ROSE, will be published by St. Martin's Press, New York, in April, 2015. The Polish rights have also been sold and ROSE will appear next summer in Poland.

Niall and Christine have launched a website KiltumperBooks where news about their projects is also available. Here's the link to the ebook edition of their first non-fiction book O COME YE BACK TO IRELAND